The third and final installment of our American Healthcare series examines the evolution of the American hospital system. There are more than 6,000 hospitals in the United States and several distinctions among them. After a quick recap of the first two episodes, we look primarily at the peculiar designation of nonprofit hospitals, their relationship to practitioners and their role in driving costs in the system. We conclude the series with a few hot takes from medical professionals, some basic proposals to improve coverage and care and ask what it would take to move toward Medicare for All.
Chapters
Intro: 00:01:59
Chapter One: What’s a Hospital? 00:13:59
Chapter Two: For-Profit and Nonprofit Hospitals. Two sides of the same damn coin. 00:17:56
Chapter Three: Turning Doctors into Business People. 00:31:07
Chapter Four: Bring it home, Max. 00:36:09
Post Show Musings: 00:50:39
Book Love: 01:10:43
Outro: 01:11:11
Resources
OECD.stat: Health Care Resources: Hospitals
EOS Surfaces: Types of Hospitals in the US
AAPC: What Are Relative Value Units (RVUs)?
American Hospital Association: Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2022
Becker’s Hospital Review: 82 Physician-Owned Hospitals to Know
AMA Journal of Ethics: Physician-Owned Hospitals and Self-Referral
NPR’s Planet Money: How Non-Profit Hospitals Are Driving Up The Cost Of Health Care
Weatherby Healthcare: Physician salary report 2022: Physician income rising again
The New York Times: Why Are Nonprofit Hospitals So Highly Profitable?
Hub’s List: A data-based biweekly newsletter of medical fun facts
The New England Journal of Medicine: Practicing Medicine in the New Business Climate
The New England Journal of Medicine: Is Quality Improvement Improving Quality? A View from the Doctor's Office
CNN: 2 charts that show just how old this Congress actually is
The Commonwealth Fund: International Health Care System Profiles- France
Germany Visa: Health Insurance in Germany- The German Healthcare System
Congress.gov: H.R.1 For the People Act
NASHP: Can We Please Stop Fixating on Hospital Chargemasters?
KHN: Nixon’s Plan For Health Reform, In His Own Words
The Lever: Where Did The Public Option Go?
UNFTR Episode Resources
This Healthcare is Killing Us.
Book Love
Steven Brill: America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System
Nelson Lichtenstein: State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
Mark Vonnegut: The Heart of Caring: A Life in Pediatrics
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Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written by pre-existing conditions and hosted by declining mortality rates.
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